Fever Without Caitlin Clark Against Mystics Was PAINFUL to Watch
3 lessons: DeWanna Bonner gets going but Fever lose while adjusting without Caitlin Clark
BALTIMORE — With Caitlin Clark missing her first game in over five years, the Indiana Fever dropped an 83-77 game to the Washington Mystics on Wednesday night at CFG Bank Arena.
The Fever struggled with defending the physical Mystics, especially on the glass. Indiana allowed 12 offensive rebounds, and the Mystics took six more shots than the Fever when all was said and done.
The Fever are now 2-3 and will head back home to play Connecticut (0-5) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Here are three observations.
Fever adjust to playing without Caitlin Clark
With Clark out a minimum of two weeks with a left quad strain, the Fever had to adjust. And quickly.
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Indiana received Clark’s diagnosis Sunday, one day after its loss to the New York Liberty and two practices before playing the Mystics. It was a quick turnaround, especially as Clark is so prevalent in the Fever’s offense. They used those two rotations to flesh out new rotations, figure out who was going to play point, and set a new starting lineup.
Fever coach Stephanie White decided on Sydney Colson, who the Fever signed in the offseason, to take over in the starting lineup. Colson is much more of a facilitator than a scoring PG like Clark; yet another adjustment.
Insider: Indiana Fever taking ‘long-game approach’ to Caitlin Clark’s strain
But with that, too, comes an opportunity for the Fever to work on their versatility.
“Offensively, you’ll probably see us get a little more to our off-ball actions,” White said pregame. “Get some different looks to some different positions on the floor … I think this is an opportunity to really expand, put it on our team to read and replay within certain spacing in the system, and now there’s an opportunity to expand that and get some other primary ball-handlers and see what our off-ball action looks like.”
Fever’s 3-point numbers drop
That was inevitable, right? Without Clark, the Fever’s best and most active 3-point shooter, the Fever’s numbers were going to go down.
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Still, it affected them greatly.
The Fever came into Wednesday’s game averaging 21 3-point attempts per game, with 7.3 makes for 34.5% shooting from beyond the arc.. Clark accounted for 8.75 of those attempts per game, on average, with 2.75 makes per game.
On Wednesday, the Fever’s 3-point shooting suffered. They didn’t have the crucial spacing that Clark brings to the court, the half-court pickups she draws in anticipation of her logo 3s.
Indiana attempted 21 3-pointers, but only made five of them, a 23.8% clip. Kelsey Mitchell made two of them, going 2 of 7 from the field, while DeWanna Bonner went 2 of 3 and Lexie Hull went 1 of 3. Colson, Damiris Dantas, and Sophie Cunningham combined to go 0 of 7.
DeWanna Bonner finds groove with Fever
Bonner was one of the most esteemed additions for the Fever in the offseason. At 37, she has 15 years of experience in the league, is the most experienced player in playoff history, and brings a veteran presence that the Fever desperately needed.
On the court, however, Bonner struggled to start the season. She got seven points in the season opener to move to No. 3 all time on the WNBA scoring list, but struggled since then. She didn’t make a field goal in each of the Fever’s next three games (vs. Atlanta, at Atlanta, vs. New York), and Hull took over her spot in the starting lineup beginning with the game against New York,
Indiana Fever recap: Without Caitlin Clark, they lose to Washington Mystics
It was a big adjustment for Bonner to come to a new team, with a new pace that she’s not necessarily used to. She needed time to get used to playing with the Fever, playing with an entirely new set of teammates.
She found that groove in Baltimore.
Coming off the bench, Bonner scored seven points in three minutes in the first quarter, and was one of two Fever players (the other being Natasha Howard) that had more than one field goal at halftime.
Bonner had her best game yet as a member of the Fever, finishing with 21 points on 5-of-10 shooting and four rebounds.
